Where Islam spreads, freedom dies

Italy's new austerity programme envisions the suppression of local authorities whose population is lower than 1000. As a result, mayors whose fiefdoms are threatened with abolition or merger are now scrambling for immigrants to make up the numbers.

Riccardo Benvegnù, the mayor of Acceglio, a small village of 173 people, even wrote to his counterpart in Lampedusa, offering to accept 830 illegal immigrants. The mayor of Lampedusa hurriedly wrote back, thanking him for his "courage and great sense of statesmanship". When news of the plan leaked, the local population was outraged. The mayor then backtracked and insisted the offer hadn't been meant seriously and he had only wanted to make a point.

There is no doubt, however, that many Italian mayors are now, genuinely and more discreetly, looking for immigrants to bolster the numbers in their local communities and avoid the abolition of their offices.